Wal-Mart and Apple Battle for Turf — The retail behemoth isn't happy about the iPod maker's plans to offer movie downloads through iTunes. Has Wal-Mart met its match? — The guy from Bentonville, Ark., surely isn't on any of Hollywood's leading man lists.

Exclusive: Movie Downloads on iTunes By Mid-September — Coming soon to a Mac or PC near you: Movies on iTunes. My BusinessWeek colleague Ron Grover has exclusive details about how how Wal-Mart, as the largest seller of DVDs — it sells about 40% of DVDs produced — is unhappy at the prospect …

Reports: Apple to hold special event on September 12th — Based on reports from European Apple enthusiast websites and last night's YourMacLife radio broadcast, Apple is in the process of inviting members of the press to a special event for new products, to be held on September 12, 2006.

Google Image Labeler — Google released the Google Image Labeler game. The idea is that you will be labeling images along with a random partner, in real-time. When you both find the same keywords, you score points and advance to the next round. A high-score table shows who scored the most points.

Google Images Labeler: Google's Challenge To Flickr? — Google Blogoscoped spotted the Google Image Labeler game, designed to help Google improve its image search results through tagging. It feels like a catch-up game with human-powered efforts that Yahoo is embracing via Flickr …

Intel expected to cut thousands of jobs — update Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini is expected to announce a massive layoff as soon as Tuesday that could eliminate as many as 10,000 jobs, CNET News.com has learned. — The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker, having suffered several …

It's Official: Windows Vista RC1 Is Complete — This just in: Platforms and Services Co-President Jim Allchin has just now posted an announcement that RC1 is complete on the TechBeta/TAP site (note that it's password-protected). We're reproducing the text here so that you all can see his comments.

Language Wars — An old friend emailed me to ask: … Ah, an excellent question, simultaneously impossible to answer and very easy to answer! — Sorry, I should stop speaking in riddles. A while ago I wrote an article called Lord Palmerston on Programming in which I claimed …

The New Barbarians — Free software. Bargain chips. The always-on Internet. Today's tech giants are in danger. But the next big boom has already begun. — William Coleman doesn't need to make another fortune in high-tech. He is 58 years old and—twice—has earned more than enough money to retire.

Phishing expedition at heart of AT&T hacking — When AT&T said in a press release this week that "unauthorized persons illegally hacked into a computer system and accessed personal data" from thousands of DSL customers, it wasn't telling the whole story. — Internal company documents show …

Samsung Q1P UMPC adds a missing link: HSDPA — Two short weeks ago we heard about the Samsung Q1-SSD with flash drive and the Q1b which will sport a Via processor. Get ready for the Q1P, which will also have a Via CPU but adds HDSPA connectivity. The announcement just hit at the IFA show …

Killer NIC Hands On Testing Part 1 — We get dirty with the first gaming focused network card. Surprising preliminary results within! — A couple of months ago, a previously unknown company going by the name Bigfoot Networks announced plans for a hardcore gaming oriented network interface card (NIC).

ISPs fight against encrypted BitTorrent downloads — The advent of BitTorrent was a cause for celebration for people who wished to share large files very quickly, but Internet Service Providers did not see the technology in quite the same positive light. ISPs soon found that the majority …

2018 Top 100 Global Tech Leaders — 21st century technology-sector leadership requires more than financial success. It also requires a commitment to compliance, innovation, and much more. Who are today's leaders?